scholarly journals Benthic communities in relation to wave exposure and spatial positions on sublittoral boulders in the Baltic Sea

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Wallin ◽  
S Qvarfordt ◽  
P Norling ◽  
H Kautsky
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Wave Exposure ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
The Baltic

scholarly journals Evaluating impacts of bottom trawling and hypoxia on benthic communities at the local, habitat, and regional scale using a modelling approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 278-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
P D van Denderen ◽  
S G Bolam ◽  
R Friedland ◽  
J G Hiddink ◽  
K Norén ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Benthic Habitats ◽  
Bottom Trawling ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Local Habitat

Abstract Bottom trawling disturbance and hypoxia are affecting marine benthic habitats worldwide. We present an approach to predict their effects on benthic communities, and use the approach to estimate the state, the biomass relative to carrying capacity, of the Baltic Sea at the local, habitat, and regional scale. Responses to both pressures are expected to depend on the longevity of fauna, which is predicted from benthic data from 1558 locations. We find that communities in low-salinity regions mostly consist of short-lived species, which are, in our model, more resilient than those of the saline areas. The model predicts that in 14% of the Baltic Sea region benthic biomass is reduced by at least 50%, whereas an additional 8% of the region has reductions of 10–50%. The effects of hypoxia occur over larger spatial scales and lead to a low state of especially deep habitats. The approach is based on a simple characterization of the benthic community, which comes with high uncertainty, but allows for the identification of benthic habitats that are at greatest risk and prioritization of management actions at the regional scale. This information supports the development of sustainable approaches to manage impact of human activities on benthic ecosystems.

Impacts of Climate Change on the Ecosystem of the Baltic Sea

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markku Viitasalo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Top Predators ◽  
The Baltic

Climate change influences the Baltic Sea ecosystem via its effects on oceanography and biogeochemistry. Sea surface temperature has been projected to increase by 2 to 4 °C until 2100 due to global warming; the changes will be more significant in the northern areas and less so in the south. The warming up will also diminish the annual sea ice cover by 57% to 71%, and ice season will be one to three months shorter than in the early 21st century, depending on latitude. A significant decrease in sea surface salinity has been projected because of an increase in rainfall and decrease of saline inflows into the Baltic Sea. The increasing surface flow has, in turn, been projected to increase leaching of nutrients from the soil to the watershed and eventually into the Baltic Sea. Also, acidification of the seawater and sea-level rise have been predicted. Increasing seawater temperature speeds up metabolic processes and increases growth rates of many secondary producers. Species associated with sea ice, from salt brine microbes to seals, will suffer. Due to the specific salinity tolerances, species’ geographical ranges may shift by tens or hundreds of kilometres with decreasing salinity. A decrease in pH will slow down calcification of bivalve shells, and higher temperatures also alleviate establishment of non-indigenous species originating from more southern sea areas. Many uncertainties still remain in predicting the couplings between atmosphere, oceanography and ecosystem. Especially projections of many oceanographic parameters, such as wind speeds and directions, the mean salinity level, and density stratification, are still ambiguous. Also, the effects of simultaneous changes in multiple environmental factors on species with variable preferences to temperature, salinity, and nutrient conditions are difficult to project. There is, however, enough evidence to claim that due to increasing runoff of nutrients from land and warming up of water, primary production and sedimentation of organic matter will increase; this will probably enhance anoxia and release of phosphorus from sediments. Such changes may keep the Baltic Sea in an eutrophicated state for a long time, unless strong measures to decrease nutrient runoff from land are taken. Changes in the pelagic and benthic communities are anticipated. Benthic communities will change from marine to relatively more euryhaline communities and will suffer from hypoxic events. The projected temperature increase and salinity decline will contribute to maintain the pelagic ecosystem of the Central Baltic and the Gulf of Finland in a state dominated by cyanobacteria, flagellates, small-sized zooplankton and sprat, instead of diatoms, large marine copepods, herring, and cod. Effects vary from area to area, however. In particular the Bothnian Sea, where hypoxia is less common and rivers carry a lot of dissolved organic carbon, primary production will probably not increase as much as in the other basins. The coupled oceanography-biogeochemistry ecosystem models have greatly advanced our understanding of the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems. Also, studies on climate associated “regime shifts” and cascading effects from top predators to plankton have been fundamental for understanding of the response of the Baltic Sea ecosystem to anthropogenic and climatic stress. In the future, modeling efforts should be focusing on coupling of biogeochemical processes and lower trophic levels to the top predators. Also, fine resolution species distribution models should be developed and combined with 3-D modelling, to describe how the species and communities are responding to climate-induced changes in environmental variables.

scholarly journals The Baltic Sea scale inventory of benthic faunal communities

2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 1196-1213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayya Gogina ◽  
Henrik Nygård ◽  
Mats Blomqvist ◽  
Darius Daunys ◽  
Alf B. Josefson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Macoma Balthica ◽  
Benthic Invertebrate ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Species Abundances ◽  
Faunal Communities ◽  
Community Data ◽  
Wet Weight ◽  
The Baltic

Abstract This study provides an inventory of the recent benthic macrofaunal communities in the entire Baltic Sea. The analyses of soft-bottom benthic invertebrate community data based on over 7000 locations in the Baltic Sea suggested the existence of 10 major communities based on species abundances and 17 communities based on species biomasses, respectively. The low-saline northern Baltic, characterized by silty sediments, is dominated by Monoporeia affinis, Marenzelleria spp., and Macoma balthica. Hydrobiidae, Pygospio elegans, and Cerastoderma glaucum dominate the community in sandy habitats off the Estonian west coast and in the southeastern and southern Baltic Sea. Deep parts of the Gulf of Finland and central Baltic Sea often experience hypoxia, and when oxygen levels in these regions recover, Bylgides sarsi was the first species to colonize. The southwestern Baltic Sea, with high salinity, has higher macrofaunal diversity compared with the northern parts. To spatially interpolate the distribution of the major communities, we used the Random Forest method. Substrate data, bathymetric maps, and modelled hydrographical fields were used as predictors. Model predictions were in good agreement with observations, quantified by Cohen's κ of 0.90 for the abundance and 0.89 in the wet weight-based model. Misclassifications were mainly associated with uncommon classes in regions with high spatial variability. Our analysis provides a detailed baseline map of the distribution of benthic communities in the Baltic Sea to be used both in science and management.

scholarly journals Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Have Adverse Effects on Benthic Communities in the Baltic Sea: Implications for Environmental Status Assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Raymond ◽  
Elena Gorokhova ◽  
Agnes ML Karlson
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Benthic Communities ◽  
Chemical Exposure ◽  
Environmental Predictors ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Status Assessment ◽  
The Baltic

Changes in benthic macrofaunal communities are indicative of environmental stressors, including eutrophication and hypoxia. However, some species are sensitive not only to hypoxia but also to various environmental contaminants. We tested which of the environmental predictors (sediment organic carbon, sediment concentrations of metals and polyaromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs], bottom water oxygen, salinity, temperature, and surface chlorophyll-a concentration) that best explained the following response variables: (1) macrofauna community composition, (2) abundance of a benthic sentinel species, the amphipod Monoporeia affinis; and (3) the Benthic Quality Index (BQI). All data originated from 29 reference monitoring stations in the Baltic Sea and the statistical tests included both uni- and multivariate analyses. The community composition and BQI were best explained by the same combination of salinity, depth, temperature and PAH concentrations. The abundance of M. affinis, which is sensitive to hypoxia and chemical exposure, was best explained by PAHs as a single predictor. Our findings suggest that benthic communities in the Baltic Sea are influenced by anthropogenic contaminants, which should be taken into account when benthos is used for eutrophication status assessment.

Temporal and spatial sedimentation rate variabilities in the eastern Gotland Basin, the Baltic Sea

Boreas ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Christiansen ◽  
Helmar Kunzendorf ◽  
Kay-Christian Emeis ◽  
Rudolf Endler ◽  
Ulrich Struck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Sedimentation Rate ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Gotland Basin ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
The Baltic

Russian Oil: Production and Exports

2003 ◽  
pp. 136-146
Author(s):  
K. Liuhto
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Oil Transportation ◽  
Sea Ports ◽  
The Baltic

Statistical data on reserves, production and exports of Russian oil are provided in the article. The author pays special attention to the expansion of opportunities of sea oil transportation by construction of new oil terminals in the North-West of the country and first of all the largest terminal in Murmansk. In his opinion, one of the main problems in this sphere is prevention of ecological accidents in the process of oil transportation through the Baltic sea ports.

Paleoecological study of bottom sediments of the lake Goluboye (Karelian Isthmus) according to the results of diatom analysis

2019 ◽  
pp. 265-269
Author(s):  
Angelina E. Shatalova ◽  
Uriy A. Kublitsky ◽  
Dmitry A. Subetto ◽  
Anna V. Ludikova ◽  
Alar Rosentau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Bottom Sediments ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Karelian Isthmus ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Diatom Analysis ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Important Direction ◽  
The Baltic

The study of paleogeography of lakes is an actual and important direction in modern science. As part of the study of lakes in the North-West of the Karelian Isthmus, this analysis will establish the dynamics of salinity of objects, which will allow to reconstruct changes in the level of the Baltic Sea in the Holocene.

Holocene diatom biostratigraphy of the SW Gulf of Gdańsk, Southern Baltic Sea (part III)

2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Leśniewska ◽  
Małgorzata Witak
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
The South ◽  
Gulf Of Gdańsk ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Southern Baltic Sea ◽  
Gulf Of Gdansk ◽  
Southern Baltic ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Palaeoenvironmental Changes

Holocene diatom biostratigraphy of the SW Gulf of Gdańsk, Southern Baltic Sea (part III)The palaeoenvironmental changes of the south-western part of the Gulf of Gdańsk during the last 8,000 years, with reference to the stages of the Baltic Sea, were reconstructed. Diatom analyses of two cores taken from the shallower and deeper parts of the basin enabled the conclusion to be drawn that the microflora studied developed in the three Baltic phases: Mastogloia, Littorina and Post-Littorina. Moreover, the so-called anthropogenic assemblage was observed in subbottom sediments of the study area.

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